R.I.P.D. - a new take on a cop movie

Despite sporadically entertaining moments, the earnest efforts of both stars are not enough to lift a film that has the spirit but not the substance to be the movie it's clearly aspiring to be.

Jeff Bridges, left, and Ryan Reynolds in a scene from R.I.P.D. Courtesy Universal Pictures / AP Photo

R.I.P.D.
Director:
Robert
Schwentke
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Bridges
**

Reynolds plays a recently deceased cop who joins the R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department). Mentored by an ex-US Marshal (Bridges), the pair hunt mischievous souls and bring them to the afterlife. With a novel idea and a likeable duo heading the film, it is surprising that the final product is so slight and unsatisfying. Seemingly more involved with effects and the premise than they are moving the story forward and adding flesh to narrative bones, the director Schwentke and his writers provide a nice-looking world but fail to build on it. Even in a film with as many narrative issues as this, watching Bridges quip up a storm is a treat. Clearly communing with the spirit of his True Grit character Rooster Cogburn, he and Reynolds (again committing a solid performance to a lacklustre film) make a great team, but in a film so preoccupied with style, they wander around the film without anything of note to do.

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